2013 King Faisal Prize awarded to P.B. Corkum and F. Krausz
The King Faisal Foundation in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, announced that physicists Paul B. Corkum and Ferenc Krausz have jointly been awarded the 2013 King Faisal International Prize for Science. They are recognized for their independent pioneering work, which has made it possible to capture the incredibly fast motion of electrons in atoms and molecules with a time resolution down to attoseconds. The winners will receive their awards at a ceremony in Riyadh under the auspices of the King of Saudi Arabia.
The science subcategories cover a broad scope: physics; mathematics; chemistry; and biology. Prizes in the different fields are awarded on a rotating basis. The previous physics prize was given in 2009 to Sir Richard Henry Friend and Rashed Alievic Sunyaev (Europhysics News, 40 (3), pp. 7, May-June 2009). Science Historian Roshdi Hifni Rashed received the Award in 2007 under the category of Islamic Studies for the Topic: Muslims’ Contribution to Pure or Applied Sciences (Europhysics News, 40 (3), pp. 7, May-June 2009).
Paul Corkum is a Canadian physicist specializing in attosecond physics and laser science. He holds a joint University of Ottawa–NRC Chair in Attosecond Photonics.
Ferenc Krausz is a Hungarian-Austrian physicist, whose research team has generated and measured the first attosecond light pulse and used it for capturing electrons’ motion inside atoms, marking the birth of attophysics. In 2003 he was appointed director at the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics in Garching and in 2004 became chair of experimental physics at the Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich.
The topic for the year 2014 Prize for Science is Mathematics and the deadline for all nominations is 1 May 2013. More information on the prize website.
